The Sims 5 Is Now In Development, Here's A First Look At Its Build Mode

After eight years of The Sims 4, developer Maxis has revealed the next generation of The Sims is on its way. Currently titled Project Rene, this new iteration is meant to be "reminiscent of words like renewal, renaissance, and rebirth," and represents the team's "renewed commitment for The Sims' bright future."

Maxis first gave fans a look at The Sims 5 during October 18's Behind The Sims Summit. During the presentation, the team revealed a few minutes of gameplay, focusing on showing off all the features coming to the game's build mode. Whereas former The Sims games have stuck to a grid-based design system, the next game in the series appears to be ditching that in favor of enabling players to place items just about anywhere they desire. Players will also be able to customize items similarly to how they could in The Sims 3. However, this enhanced build mode doesn't stop at merely changing items colors and patterns--players will even be able to adjust the number of cushions that adorn their Sims' couch.

As of right now, the studio has not revealed any details on character customization, how The Sims 5 will look, or its core gameplay. Maxis stated that while the game will stay true to what The Sims has always been, The Sims 5 will evolve how Sims think and behave, as well as provide players with "even more ways to play, tools to encourage creativity, and the ability to tell meaningful stories." In addition, the upcoming game will allow players to play solo or collaborate with others, and will have both cross-play and cross-progression between consoles.

"From the start, The Sims defined life simulation games and has continued to grow into an incredible platform for creativity and self expression," said Sims boss Lyndsay Pearson. "Today marks the start of our journey over the next few years as we work on this next game and creative platform, currently titled Project Rene. We are building on the same foundation that has made The Sims compelling for generations of players and pushing the boundaries to create new experiences. We’ll have much more to share as we continue to progress on the game’s development and milestones along the way."

Throughout the presentation, Maxis emphasized Project Rene is still extremely early in development. However, the team plans to share updates and in-progress work across the next few years, and will use player feedback to help aid development.

In addition to The Sims 5, the Behind The Sims Summit also revealed several other changes coming to The Sims franchise. This includes a new destination for The Sims 4 players to download mods and user generated content through a collaboration with Overwolf--a mod manager and discovery platform for user-generated content--as well as updates coming to The Sims Freeplay and The Sims Mobile.

In other The Sims news, as of today The Sims 4 is available for players to download for free on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Origin, and the EA app.